Page 33 of If She Remembered
The address led her to a middle-class residential street lined with mature trees and well-maintained homes.Kate could see the police vehicles before she reached the house number, their red and blue lights creating an intermittent glow against the gathering darkness of early evening.
She parked behind one of the patrol cars and grabbed her badge and notepad from the passenger seat.The house was a two-story colonial painted yellow with white trim, similar to dozens of other homes in the neighborhood.Nothing about it stood out as particularly remarkable or unusual, which seemed to fit the pattern of their previous crime scenes.
As Kate approached the front door, she could hear the sound of someone crying.A woman's voice, high and strained, was saying something about "supposed to come home tomorrow" over and over again.The sound carried a note of hysteria that Kate recognized from too many crime scenes over the years.
A uniformed officer met her at the front door.He was young, probably in his late twenties, with the serious expression that suggested he was still getting used to responding to death scenes.He looked nervous, maybe even on the verge of being sick.
"Agent Wise?I'm Officer Hall.Thank you for getting here so quickly."
Kate showed her badge and followed him into the house."What do we have?"
"The victim is Linda Harper, forty-nine years old.She was found dead by her sister, Samantha, about an hour and a half ago."Hall gestured toward the kitchen, where Kate could see another officer trying to comfort a woman who was clearly in distress."Samantha came by to drop off some things, found the front door unlocked, and the victim unresponsive in the converted garage space."
"Converted garage?"The term piqued her interest at once.
"Yeah, the victim had been fixing up the space above the garage as an apartment.Looks like it was almost finished."Hall consulted his notepad and read from the notes written there."The sister says the victim's son was supposed to come home from rehab tomorrow.She'd been preparing the space for him."
Kate felt the pattern fall into place.Another empty-nester, another adult child returning home, another death.The timing was too consistent to be coincidental.
"Where's the body?"she asked.
"Still in the garage.We haven't moved anything yet, waiting for the coroner and your arrival."Hall led her through the kitchen toward a door that opened onto what had clearly been a garage conversion project."The sister is pretty shaken up,” Hall said.“She keeps talking about how the victim was excited about her son coming home."
Kate nodded and followed Hall into the converted space.The garage had been transformed into a small but comfortable living area, with new flooring, painted walls, and furniture arranged to create a welcoming environment.It was clearly a labor of love, designed to help someone start fresh while remaining close to family support.
Linda Harper lay motionless on the floor near a twin bed.She looked to be in her mid-fifties, though Kate knew from Hall's information that she was actually younger.She wore jeans and a sweater that looked comfortable and well-worn, and her position suggested she had fallen suddenly and without warning.
But what caught Kate's attention immediately was the prescription bottle sitting on a small nightstand near the bed.Just as Duran’s preliminary details had suggested, the cap was off.
"Has anyone touched the medication bottle?"Kate asked, pulling on latex gloves.
"No ma'am.We secured the scene as soon as we realized what we were looking at."Hall watched as Kate approached the nightstand."The sister mentioned that the victim had been taking medication for anxiety, but I don't know if that's what's in the bottle."
Kate carefully examined the prescription bottle without disturbing its position.The pills inside were capsules, similar in size and color to the Lorazepam that had been found at the previous crime scenes.But when she looked at the label, she saw immediately that these were not anti-anxiety medications at all.
The prescription was for something called Atenolol, which Kate recognized as a blood pressure medication.More importantly, the prescribing physician listed on the label was not Dr.Cassandra Chen.It was Dr.Patricia Walsh.While it did break the pattern (and cleared Chen's name in the process), the overall picture remained the same.
Kate felt a mixture of confirmation and confusion.The pills looked similar to those found at the Bennett and Rodriguez scenes, suggesting the same method of poisoning.But the different doctor and different medication type added new variables to consider.
"Officer Hall, when was the last time anyone spoke to the victim?"
"The sister says she had coffee with the victim yesterday morning.Based on the condition of the body, the coroner's preliminary estimate is that death occurred sometime yesterday afternoon or evening.So we're looking at roughly twenty-four hours."
Kate studied the scene more carefully, noting the careful attention Linda Harper had paid to preparing this space for her son.The contrast between the care put into this preparation and the tragedy of Linda's death was overwhelming.A place that had been meant for celebration and reunification had become something much darker.
"It's definitely connected to our case," Kate said, more to herself than to Hall."Same method, same victim profile, same timing."
"Agent Wise?"The voice came from behind her, and Kate turned to see a woman in her early forties standing in the doorway between the garage and the kitchen.She had the same basic facial features as the victim but looked several years younger.Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she was holding a tissue that had clearly seen heavy use.
"Are you Samantha Harper?"Kate asked gently.
"Yes.Are you with the FBI?The officer said someone from the FBI was coming."Samantha's voice was shaky, but she was clearly trying to hold herself together."Is Linda's death connected to something bigger?Because I don't understand what happened to her."Her voice grew thin near the end, as if she might cry again.But she managed to hold it together.
Kate approached Samantha carefully, noting the grief and confusion in her expression."I'm Agent Wise, and I'm very sorry for your loss, Ms.Harper.And yes, we're investigating some deaths that might be related to your sister's."
"Related how?"Samantha wiped at her eyes with the tissue."Linda didn't have any enemies.She was just trying to help Ben get back on his feet."
"Ben is your sister's son?"
